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First steps to postdoc success

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By Becky Oskin

Apologies to all wallflowers&colon; whether you are about to defend your doctorate or you are a year away from finishing, it is time to start networking. Most postdocs find their posts through introductions at conferences or connections via other students and faculty members. Before putting out feelers, however, it’s worth figuring out how a postdoc fits into your long-term career plan so you can decide just what sort of position you want.

Staying in academia is sensible if your ultimate goal is university tenure. Most graduate students assume they should change schools after their PhD to help broaden their scientific network, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

University of Pittsburgh postdoc Tim Maul chose the lab next door. Staying at Pitt meant he could keep his side job as an engineer at the nearby children’s hospital. “Because I stayed at the same institution, I made sure I chose something completely different,” he says. Maul, who has a PhD in bioengineering, plans to pair his bench skills and clinical work to treat disease.

Prospective postdocs often overlook government labs, but they rank highly in surveys of postdoc satisfaction. “Because lab funding doesn’t depend on grants, there is more freedom to explore new areas and take on higher-risk projects,” says Stacey Gilk, a postdoc at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a National Institutes of Health lab in Hamilton, Montana.

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A corporate lab can be a good option if you are considering a career in industry. It offers a foot in the door if your heart is set on a particular company, and the real-world experience means you can hit the ground running once you land a permanent post. But a word of caution&colon; make sure your project can be published. “There is a rule at Biolabs that postdocs cannot work on product development, because they won’t be able to publish,” says Claude Maina, a senior scientist at New England Biolabs in Ipswich, Massachusetts, which produces reagents for the biotech industry.

Unlike academic postdocs, all government positions and most corporate openings are advertised in journals, on job boards for professional societies and at national meetings.

So, are you ready to network? Approach people in your department and let them know you are looking for a postdoc position. You should also take advantage of opportunities to catch visiting scientists and speakers. Remember, you’re not just job hunting; you’re fishing for tips on who is a good mentor and who might be leaving a job or starting up a lab.

Most importantly, attend as many conferences as possible. If you’re petrified about approaching a famous principal investigator, talk to his or her postdocs and graduate students instead. Not only will you get the lowdown on the lab, you can also ask for an introduction. “One thing we learn at Harvard is that our PIs get bombarded with emails asking about positions. I think you have to try to meet people,” says Alison Williams, a postdoc at the Harvard School of Public Health.

As a graduate student, Williams had to scrounge for travel funds, even resorting to rifling through the lab’s safety officer’s address book looking for companies to approach for grants. The effort paid off when a senior scientist struck up a conversation with her during a poster session. “I sneaked a glance at her nametag and it turned out she was one of my heroes,” says Williams. “Fifteen minutes later, she offered me a job.”

Not everyone will be as lucky as Williams, but the effort you invest now in networking will pay off when your dream postdoc opens up. “You need to take advantage of every opportunity,” she says.